A listing of all my many adventures and misadventures in this passion that has overtaken me since I was 25 years old... knitting.

Friday, July 29, 2005

Color Naming

The new color of merino that I'm spinning, I've decided to call "Nose Crust".

Blog BraintrustI was glad to read the derivation of "drab" from suddenlysteven, and it is clearly accurate. I just think the name wouldn't inspire many folks to buy it, like "Meadow Sage" might (thanks AmyS).

I do have to say that I've been nothing but pleased with all of my orders from Paradise Fiber. The products are excellent, their web site is easy and their service has been ideal. Now, if they could only afford a color-naming consultant.

Current KnittingI've made some additional progress, albeit just a little, on the current design.

Unfortunately, I'm without camera, so even if I decided to make it non-secret, I couldn't post a picture.

The garment is being made in pieces, and I've completed about 2/3rds of one side of the front. Suffice it to say, the design is moving along slowly.

Radio ShowA few folks wrote and mentioned that they heard the radio show last night.

The show turned out to be quite excellent, and represented knitting in a very positive and interesting light. The guests on the show were excellent, and even if I hadn't been one of the guests, I would have enjoyed listening.

A couple of the callers and guests started discussing their beliefs that you can imbue your knitting with emotions and thoughts, which I disagree with completely. Unfortunately, the host, Christopher Liden (sp?) asked me what I thought about it. I told him, in essence, that I thought it was a lovely whimsical idea, but not likely in my mind.

There was also a very interesting caller, Frances, who berated the knitting publishers for their "dumbing down" of knitting to accommodate the trendy knitters. I enjoyed hearing others dispute this.

All in all, I was quite pleased with the show and how I represented the knit blogging world.

Readers' Comments/QuestionsAnnie D. asks, "Some time ago you linked us to a site for patterns where you had a scarfpattern for sale. Of course, I lost the link. Can you help me?"

Yes, the scarf is the Koigu Cross Stitch scarf, and it's available on the Knitting Vault. It has been by far my biggest selling design.

Alex P. sent in a strongly worded e-mail telling me why she didn't like my blog. I sent her the following response, and thought my comments to her might be useful to others:

Hi Alex,

In all honesty, I wanted to thank you for your e-mail. It provided me with a lot of feedback.

I'm aware that the Newcomer Rules often anger folks (as they seem to have angered you), but that is part of their purpose. I also know that there are some vital, creative knitters that won't come to my site because I'm not very nice. But, overall, I'm very satisfied with the forum that reads my blog, and I'm willing to miss out on the participation of those that can't abide my arrogant blog. The readers that do come back regularly, are amazingly creative, intelligent and funny people (for the most part).

If you could find one on-line community that is interesting and creative and expressive and enjoyable, I'd be more than happy to consider modeling my blog after them.

One last thing, and I hope you'll take this as useful feedback. If you re-read your e-mail again, you'll note that is has a lot of errors (grammatical, typographical and syntax). It makes it a lot more difficult to take your comments seriously when you have difficulty writing a coherent e-mail. Based on your comments, I think you've made a good decision in not participating on my web blog.